The Beatles' Solo Careers Poll - Voting and General Discussion Thread

his influence is pretty apparent on some tracks (like the echodrums on 'Well Well Well')

couldn't imagine all things must pass without the spectoral shimmer

as far as which other producers would be better, i dunno, but there had to have been other producers who wouldn't have covered all the tracks in reverb and strings. again, i love POB and ATMP and Imagine and Spector's sound is very much a part of those records, but i don't think everything would have fallen apart if someone else was in the room. to believe that they only would have been good with Spector's touch is to elevate him above all his peers in a way that i don't think he necessarily deserves

"awaiting on you all" is the best song anyone ever made let alone a beatle

I had it #5 overall on my ballot, first of nine songs from the album.

I gave Venus and Mars another couple spins over the weekend and imo it's not a fantastic album by any means. As usual for every tune that's appealing it's almost immediately offset by something that's gratingly awful. "Magneto and Titanium Man" is going on the low end of my ballot, "You Gave Me the Answer" can go die in a fire, "Listen to What the Man Said" is a pretty good single but then it's marred by that shitty saxophone noodling. "Rock Show" is so boneheadedly literal I can't really appreciate it.

xp

"Awaiting On You All" would be my number one, but for a certain song that I know other people aren't going to vote for/actively hate

"You Gave Me the Answer" is incredible.

to believe that they only would have been good with Spector's touch is to elevate him above all his peers in a way that i don't think he necessarily deserves

I direct you to the ILX Producers poll, which Spector won by a deservedly wide margin, he really is that special

xp

i think "spirits of ancient egypt" is cool

and come on, "letting go"!

Producers, Recording Engineers and Studio Wizards: POLL RESULTS

I came across as unduly harsh there, the good stuff is good, the bad stuff is bad and it's about evenly split imo

xp

is Paul the funkiest Beatle? I kind of think so. I feel like the other three didn't get how funk rhythms work, not to the extent Paul clearly does anyway.

"Your Love is Forever"!

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, May 21, 2018 3:15 PM (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm surprised at how much i absolutely love "here comes the moon"

I think either George Harrison or Gone Troppo is the best of those four late seventies, early eighties Dark Horse label albums.

pretty stoked to have the harrison s/t lined up for my evening listening. never heard any of the records in between 'material world' and 'gone troppo.'. hopefully it will be a nice change up from the ringo slog (tho i still have hopes for 'old wave')

re: funkiness: i could be way off but i do get the impression he was more actively listening to current pop... the braille dedication to stevie wonder on Red Rose Speedway being one indicator.

"Remember Love" is sweet, ... kind of reminds me of a Velvet Underground ballad. Surprised Wes Anderson hasn't picked it up for one of his soundtracks.

Is Ronnie Spector's Tandoori Chicken actually eligible? I love it and would put it in my top 20 but not sure if it belongs in here.

living in the material world feels real loosely glued together

"give me love" and "don't let me wait too long" are jams though

"don't let me wait too long" is so slept on. if they'd stayed together and it was on a beatles album every beatles fan would love that song. maybe not "here comes the sun" level but it'd be a thing.

Yes tandoori chicken is eligible (george played on and produced it), i am voting for it

Xp

Jeff Lynne-isms aside I am a big fan of the deep cuts like Fish On The Sand and If Just For Today.

― Westworld more like Worstworld right? (Phil D.), Friday, May 11, 2018 3:50 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these songs both rule

Man i wish the the george/phil/ronnie spector album had been finished, can totally imagine her killing it on "You".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Try_Some,_Buy_Some

i've rly been enjoying having an excuse to dig into a lot of solo beatles stuff i'd either never heard or hadn't listened to in more than a decade. went through a bunch of 70s paul in the car this weekend and i actually dug a lot of it much more than i expected. ram isn't as underwritten as i'd remembered, and back seat of my car probably rates as one of my favorite solo mccartney tracks now. (the moment when he suddenly bursts out "we believe that we CAN'T be wrong!" gives me chills, just so perfectly timed.) red rose speedway is a frustrating album because i feel like it's so close to being one of his best -- big barn bed, get on the right thing, single pigeon are all good -- but everyone is otm about that damn medley! it's as if paul was so confident (after abbey road) that he could make a great medley out of anything that he barely bothered writing any real songs at all.

oh man! i wonder if ronnie's version of "you" still exists? now that i remember it, the song sounds perfect for her.

Would love to hear that also. I should have voted for "You," now that I think of it...

what's so bizarre is that red rose speedway was intended was a double album! i'm one of its defenders as a nice little collection of diversions and oddities - basically a better-produced and slightly more-completely-written wild life - but no wayyyy was there another platter's worth of good material. "country dreamer" and "i lie around" are both good, i admit, and the cover of "tragedy" is okay, but that's about it and none of those really demand inclusion. b-sides almost by nature.

harrison s/t is off to a great start. i always liked "love comes to everyone" and this lush, almost LA sound on "not guilty" is working shockingly well. i know the beatles take on anthology by heart so it's interesting to hear it softened up and sanded down, and yet still sounding great.

the harrison s/t is pretty great, i've decided. at the v least i think it's much better than living in the material world

i just love that sound/period. there's some touches on "here comes the moon" that remind me a lot of paul simon on still crazy and one-trick pony. or the opening few seconds of "wino junko," actually.

same. it's a lovely production

oh man and "blow away" is on this too! yeah i'm totally sold on this album, i mean at this point side two could be garbage and it'd still be better than living in the material world. i've always found "faster" sort of laughable since catching the video once randomly in the early 00s... i mean he just looks so lost in that outfit, and having "he's the master of going faster" as your centerpiece line is a tough sell imo. but in the context of this album i'm noticing and enjoying the lushness of the production more, and it's not hookless.

man this thread! I never thought I'd see one where GH >>>> LITMW

As a production I prefer the latter -- there's a tightness to the arrangements and a newfound fluidity to George's playing -- but GH has "Love Comes to Everyone," which has been stuck in my head for the last two weeks. Talk about an effective use of the soft rock disco bounce -- a sound I've critiqued enough in my Worst Songs Ever series.

as far as which other producers would be better, i dunno, but there had to have been other producers who wouldn't have covered all the tracks in reverb and strings. again, i love POB and ATMP and Imagine and Spector's sound is very much a part of those records

John and Yoko insist -- take it with a grain of salt -- that they did the actual producing while Spector got the balances right. I suppose it depends on what you think a producer does or whether you agree with them. They've played it pretty straight as far as assigning credit goes.

Essential listening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjp_ZHNkhrg

I like the sound of Living in the Material World, too. In fact, it sounds better to me in the current mastering job that's on Spotify than what I remember from having a vinyl copy. One thing I'm not crazy about, though, is the sound on some of the lead vocals where it sounds like you're hearing Harrison being picked up by something other than a close miking of his voice.

He was recording at his home studio as early as that album, but I've always thought there was a real notable change in the quality of the sounds being produced starting with 33 1/3.

wow "sisters, o sisters" fucking rocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAMR0JPXDHo

the badness of some time in new york city is overstated imo, it's mostly... ok. however, this song ^^^^^ is AMAZING

i'm voting for "we're all water" too, thank god for yoko ono

listening to all things must pass straight through for the first time in years and years. god it's terrific. just gorgeous, generous music. so many ideas and little bits of guitar playing all pouring out. i love spector's production, gives so much texture and also probably helps accentuate the differentness of the songs (versus if it'd just been drums-bass-guitar-vocals all through).

some weird sequencing starting on disc two though. in general the third disc, apart from "it's johnny's birthday" still seems pretty pointless to me, but i also think the title track is such a "closer" that it feels weird to get up and start again after that. maybe that's partly just a legacy of first getting to know this on CD, where it was a double-album, and all of the original side four is the opening suite of disc two. but idk, "awaiting on you all" followed by "all things must pass" is just such a concluding pair for me, and having the redundant "isn't it a pity" in there also makes it feel like you're into some kind of weird bonus material, like one of those albums that comes with a seven-inch of implicitly secondary material.

but yeah count me as one of those who could easily vote for 9 or 12 songs from this album

wow "sisters, o sisters" fucking rocks

It does! What a crazy, weird song. So much to process here. I guess l've never actually listed to Sometime in New York City. I agree that it's not nearly as bad as I've been led to believe. The songwriting isn't stellar, but the production and performances have more energy that Mind Games or Walls and Bridges.

'You Gave Me the Answer' and 'Sisters, O Sisters' both rule - the former being one of the better songs in McCartney's old time mode, the latter being Yoko writing a stellar chorus.

We got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to (*five centuries pass*) got to got to set him freeeeee!

as far as which other producers would be better, i dunno, but there had to have been other producers who wouldn't have covered all the tracks in reverb and strings. again, i love POB and ATMP and Imagine and Spector's sound is very much a part of those records, but i don't think everything would have fallen apart if someone else was in the room. to believe that they only would have been good with Spector's touch is to elevate him above all his peers in a way that i don't think he necessarily deserves

Love the sound of POB, sparse, clear, slightly aggressive, capturing time, but tbh I don't think ATMP sounds very good - the reverb and multitracking makes it unfocused to my ears. Let it Be def the worst sounding Beatles record. Was never a huge Spector fan anyway, in general I prefer my records hifi, and while obv working within a pop framework sounds to me like Spector was more into noise.

I never really cared for "Some Time in NYC" but listening to it lately, it's not so bad.
And "New York City" is basically punk rock, isn't it ?

from george's notes in the 2001 ATMP reissue…

"All these years later I would like to liberate some of the songs from the big production that seemed appropriate at the time, but now seems a bit over the top with the reverb in the wall of sound."

george otm